38 Lessons

Teachable moments abound, but I wasn't quite prepared for a peculiar teachable moment that occurred last week.  Jon brought home something so bizarre that none of us could help staring at it in bewilderment.

If you can't tell, that photo is of 38 one-dollar bills...laminated together.  Why on earth someone would waste such a precious resource by rendering it useless is beyond me.  It was a sorry sight.  It didn't take much calculating to figure out how many piano lessons' worth of payment or what percent of Jon's paycheck was stuck in that plastic graveyard. 

Instead of crying over the spilled milk, we turned it into a lesson for the kids.  We asked the boys whether or not the laminator had been wise with his finances; whether or not it was a good idea to deface money; and what would have been a better idea for preserving currency.  We then moved on to some deeper questions:  what other ways do we waste possessions that could be compared to the laminated money? 

Next, we looked into ways of fixing the problem.  Jon had done some Googling that said occasionally banks would take the mutilated money and exchange it for legal tender, so Monday the kids and I took a few trips to various banks to find out the validity of this claim.  Based on the gawking stares of numerous bank tellers, I'm pretty sure most of them had never seen anything so strange before.  While none of them were willing to exchange it, we were given the federal web site for damaged and defaced currency where we found instructions for being reimbursed for our laminated bills.

We've not yet mailed the specimen to Washington's defaced currency agency, but it will be fun to find out what happens.  While we might never be able to redeem those 38 dollars, we were able to glean very valuable lessons on using wisdom, being good stewards, and thinking through our actions.  It was definitely worth the $38!

Back in the New Saddle

Here we are again: the start of another school year!  When I think back over my summer "to do" list - you know, that long, idealistic ledger of things I intended to accomplish during the break from studies - I have to laugh.  That list is still waiting to have even ONE item completed!


Even though summer didn't go as planned, our first day of school did.  We're changing things up a lot this year, so I wasn't quite sure how the boys would take to our new curriculum and learning style, but I think they were both impressed by the end of the day.  Last night at bed time, I heard several laments about "having" to do such boring things as reading loooong stories and writing endless narratives.  Half way through the day today, however, one of them piped up, "Oh!  This is actually fun!"  Those words are encouraging to any teacher's ear!

We still have a lot of tweaking to do to our schedule.  I learned that leaving reading assignments for the end of the school day isn't the wisest of ideas, but giving the kids a recess break after several table assignments is.  Another new thing for me today was keeping up with dishes and laundry throughout the day instead of letting everything pile up for the evening when I'm tired and zapped of energy.  I inadvertently learned this skill during a 7-week babysitting job this summer - since I was babysitting 9 or 10 hours at a time, there was no "evening" time to catch up on everything.  Tossing a few dishes in the dishwasher and folding a towel or two here and there greatly reduced the need for evening chores.  It worked just as well during our school day as it did when babysitting. 

It'll be a while before we've really gotten comfortable in our new "saddle," but so far, it looks like it will be a good fit.  The kids were happy, I was happy, and I even got half of the pantry decluttered.  That never happened last year!

A Year in Review

Due to Saturday field trips and skipping several public school holidays, we finished our school year a bit earlier than many other families.  I was just as excited as the kids were to be done, and we celebrated our last day by making several batches of cookies. 

In some ways, it didn't feel as though we had accomplished everything I'd hoped:  our math and spelling could use some extra study, and neither of the boys print as neatly as I'd hoped.  Then, my mom recommended that I go back over our notes from the past school year.  "You'll be amazed and rewarded to see how much you accomplished!" she told me. 

And she was right (something my dad's been saying ever since I was little).  When we started the school year, neither of the boys even knew how to hold a pencil, let alone write complete sentences. 

Over the course of the year, we learned to read, write, and spell (at least phonetically, if not always correctly); we covered Bible; states history; counting, addition, subtraction, and telling time; science; art; and a host of other concepts. 

Special projects included making laundry soap (educational AND practical!); baking; leaf and rock collecting; and group activities with our co-op.  We additionally enjoyed a trip to the zoo; a visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium; multiple trips to the ocean; and a variety of other similar-type activities. 

Most importantly, all of the kids have matured greatly.  Learning to sit still, to get along with others, and to be polite were some of our biggest focuses this year.  For me personally, I learned to better manage my time, to better prepare for a variety of interesting learning situations, and to be more patient in my teaching approach.  There is so much more to learn than just academics!

Once I looked over our accomplishments, I felt much better about how the year had gone.  We intend to do a little brush-up in reading, math, and spelling here and there just to ensure that we don't forget all of the wonderful things we've learned. 

I am really eager to start again in the fall, but for now, I'll enjoy our summer break!
 

Great Expectations

I was eagerly anticipating Easter Break:  my patience was short and my "to-do" list long.   I blissfully thought of all that I would accomplish once the burden of teaching were lifted for a week.  Now, I can't even remember everything I'd hoped to get done, but I can count on one hand the number of achievements I did finish.

I was surprised at how long it took to catch up on dishes, fold some laundry, and sew a small baby quilt.  Yes, those are my three big accomplishments for that week!  And the dishes and laundry didn't even have the decency to  remain completed before the week was out. 


My expectations of that week, and of much in life, were much too high.  Is it a bad thing to set big goals?  Not at all.  Without  marks to reach, we'd never finish a single thing in the course of our lives.  Had I done something incorrectly?  Well, sort of.

My biggest mistake that week was in thinking that home schooling the boys takes up the majority of my free time.  It doesn't.  It takes about 4 hours a day, but that still leaves 12 waking hours left per day of productivity.  I wrongly assumed that home schooling was eating up all of my time, and that once I was freed up from this, I would be able to get a lot more done. 

This realization actually served to benefit me rather than to discourage my attempts at being more productive.  It helped me to realize that being a wife, mom, and home maker - not home schooling - takes up most of my time.  It encouraged me to be the best I can be but not to worry about what I can't do. 

And besides all of those life lessons I learned that week, I additionally got to try out the quilting arm and walking foot on my new sewing machine.  How great is that?  (They work wonderfully, by the way.) 

The Toughest Subject

If you'd been a fly on the wall in my home today, there is no doubt that you would have cringed.

"K, don't swerve your bike in front of that car!" (K continued to whine and fuss the remainder of the day.)

"T, keep your focus on your own work and not your brother's!" (T twiddled his thumbs for a while longer, but eventually completed his math worksheet.)

"L, stop yelling at me this instant!" (She continued to yell, fuss, and whine for the rest of the morning, but thankfully by afternoon had decided to cooperate.)

It was not, to say the least, a good day for any of us. I'm really praying that all of our neighbors were at work and couldn't hear the frustration that was evident in us all. Despite the rough school day, however, I suddenly realized something very important, even though I am sure the kids gleaned nothing of value from the day.

The toughest subject for me to teach is not the one I anticipated. It's not math, even though I struggled with Calculus in high school. It's not English, even though the concepts are difficult to convey to a 6-year-old.

Kindness is, by far, the toughest subject for me to teach.

Why? Not only is it something that I struggle with on a daily basis, but it's also something that I do not live out in front of my children. Added to that is the fact that it's a very difficult concept for a child to grasp (well, it's difficult for my kids, anyway).

And if I cannot demonstrate how keep the law of kindness on their tongues, I won't be very good at teaching them anything else, either. It all comes back to me: am I willing to humble myself and ask their forgiveness, to set aside my short temper in order to be a living example of Christ?

More often than not, I'm unwilling to do this. I let my sin nature set the course for the day. I do not fully rely on the power of God to overcome my failings. This wasn't easy for me to learn, but as I listened to myself today - almost as though I were watching all of us from a different vantage point - I realized that I still have a lot of learning and growing to.

In a way, it's exciting. I still have time to teach them what I'm currently learning. And I can trust in God to round out my weak areas, because even though I am responsible for my actions, my children will be responsible for theirs. He can complete my incomplete model, and He can instruct them in the areas where I have failed.

Perhaps this wasn't a completely wasted day, after all!

Nothing's New Under the Sun

Nearly everything I've learned about home schooling comes from someone else - nothing's really original with me. But as we plug along at our work, I'm learning new things to incorporate into our routines. The end result is that the kids are loving school work more and more, and I'm finding easier ways of doing things! In that light, I thought I'd share a few.

I pulled out some math worksheets for the boys today, and on a whim I grabbed colored pencils for them to use when filling them out (K had a crayon in his hand, which is what gave me the idea). They were thrilled with the "fancy" pencils and were very motivated to finish their work. Although colored pencil lead is more difficult to erase, the motivation it provided was well worth the extra erasing effort.

A friend mentioned that Mr. Clean Magic Erasers worked well on a white board. Since ours had gathered several "permanent" marks on it, I gave it a try. Wow! It now looks great. I keep it right next to the board and use it instead of the dry-erase one. If the board gets extra dirty, I just add water to the sponge and it takes it right off. What a great tip!

I don't remember how I learned to add and subtract, but I did know that I wanted the boys to visualize calculations rather than simply memorize addition and subtraction flash cards (that's not to say that flash cards don't have a valuable use at times). When my mom gave me several sets of manipulatives, I was really excited! I rotate the sets - some are colorful bears, some are various shapes, and some are little houses and characters - and the boys can use them to see exactly why 7+2=9 by setting up the manipulatives. Eventually they'll be able to do their math lessons without this aid, but right now we're working on the "why" instead of simply the end result. Thanks, Mom!

My mom-in-law recommended that we try a new curriculum next year - one that's based on hands-on unit studies, and the same curriculum she used for Jon. Since I learned via workbooks and loved that method, I was a little uncertain about teaching something out of my comfort zone. I'm realizing, though, that the kids LOVE hands-on training. It only makes sense that they would learn the same way Jon did! As hard as it will be for me to step out of my comfort zone, I think it will work really well for us. I'm really excited! Prior to her suggestion, though, I didn't even know what unit studies were, or that I could teach the same core curriculum to multiple grades and then assign age/grade-appropriate activities.

Everything we do comes from others' tips and suggestions. I'm okay with that; I've always been the type of learner who can copy someone else's ideas but who cannot come up with them on my own. I'm very thankful to everyone who offers ideas and help, because I'd be lost without them!

Change It Up!

As a child, I played eight years of youth soccer, and although I never improved in my limited ability, I enjoyed it immensely. I especially loved "subbing" for another (usually more qualified) player - switching places so that she could catch her breath and get a drink of water before changing places with me again. I never scored a single goal in my entire soccer career, but I'd like to think that I possibly gave someone else a second wind that, in turn, allowed her to make a point for our team.

Sometime during my adolescence, I learned that in hockey the phrase for "subbing" is "change it up!" The only real difference between subbing in soccer and changing it up in hockey is that with soccer, only a few players are exchanged, while in hockey, it's not uncommon for most or all of the team to trade places with a second string.*

I never really thought about applying sports strategies to education, but I recently learned that my friend routinely "changes it up" for her two home-schooled girls. Instead of doing their work at the kitchen table each day, they move around. One day they do school in the girls' bedroom; another day is at Barnes and Noble bookstore; another day they head to the library; and another is spent at the park. They repeat this change of scenery each week.

Personally, I found this to be a brilliant idea! I would have never occurred to me to change locations for study time. While this might not work for a child who is easily distracted and who needs consistency to stay focused, it can do wonders for wiggly children who need renewed freshness to keep the lessons interesting (such as hyperactive little boys).

Since we're car-less most days, we don't have the daily ability to head to a new location, but a few weeks ago we had the car and decided to spend the day at the local bookstore. It was fantastic! We read new story books; looked up random topics; and learned about new scientific discoveries. We also have our local club house and grounds to which we can walk when the weather permits.

For us, the "change it up" method might just be the best thing since donated curriculum, especially since it will be a rare (and therefore more treasured) treat. It's yet another example of how learning and working together with other families is so needed in the home school environment!

*My apologies to any hockey fans if I have improperly understood this aspect of the game. :)